Electric Cheetah {Review}

I have been to the Electric Cheetah a few times for girl’s nights out, but Troy has never been. So when we wanted to try somewhere new for dinner, preferably one which had a coupon in one of those Local First coupon books (we’re a wee bit on the cheap side), I suggested the Cheetah.

The first thing you’ll notice is all the artwork; it is fun to look at, even down to the cheetah-spot painted high chairs.

Since we’re normally beer and wine connoisseurs, we decided to try one of their 20+ craft root beers ($3). Unfortunately, they didn’t have any printed root beer menus, and we were instructed to head over to the refrigerator case to pick out our beers. This was a disappointment, since I was looking for something with vanilla notes but had no idea just looking at the bottles which one might fit the bill. We blindly selected the Sioux City Sarsaparilla, which turned out to be quite good.

We decided to start with the Breads & Spreads ($4) which is described on the menu as “Chewy house bread served with compound butter, infused extra virgin olive oil, and cheese spread. Inquire about today’s selection.” The garlic cream cheese was the best by far. The pesto butter didn’t have much pesto taste at all. The waitress didn’t say what the EVOO was supposed to be infused with, but I tasted some fruitiness. It was good. The bread was a passable sesame white bread.

I ordered my old standby, the Charred Chili Portobello ($8), which is a grilled portobello mushroom brushed with olive oil, salt and pepper, with leaf lettuce, tomato, grilled red pepper, grilled asparagus and charred chili aioli on grilled ciabatta. On the side I requested the sweet potato fries ($4) with garlic aioli and hot pepper aioli, although I think I was given garlic and dill instead. The fries were a bit soggier than I remembered.

Troy ordered the special, which was Pan seared salmon over saffron couscous with mixed peppers and red pepper coulis ($15). It was quite tasty.

We rounded out our meal by sharing a serving of banana cream pie ($5). It was fresh, light, and sweet but not too sweet.

Overall, it was a mediocre experience. Our bill came to $43.46, the coupon saved us $5.30, so after tip it was in the upper $40s. I appreciate that Electric Cheetah sources locally, so I will probably go again, but their saucing and service definitely has room for improvement.